Project Management and ITIL for UC: Recipe for Sanity

Recently, I spoke with my old partner of the Unified-View, Art Rosenberg, about the recent press release by Orange concerning UC Hosting services. In particular, they announced their support for ITIL (IT Infrastructure Libraries) practices in order to best support their customers.

Since I last worked with Art in 2002 or 2003 timeframe, I have diverted into another path of consulting: project management and IT service management. These two areas answer many of the questions Art and I raised several years ago in search of the migration strategies for IT managers as they planned their UC implementations.

We wanted to know what methodology people would follow to plan UC projects while at the same time maintaining current technology so the business did not grind to a halt. We needed to know how individual users would determine which features and functions would best benefit them in doing their jobs better. We knew one size does not fit all. How can the telcom/IT managers align with both business initiatives and end user needs or would they simply cobble something together and dub it UC? Once in place, how would UC continue to evolve seeing it has so many moving parts with new technology and releases coming out rapidly while supporting SLAs and stability requirements?

My Evolutionary Process – Part 1

After twenty-five years of managing small to large technology projects, I learned there was formal training needed in project management. While for many, formal education was an obvious opportunity, I always felt, as many do, project management is simply learned by being around other people who managed projects and mimic them. I learned within the first session of my education, I was wrong. Now, I am not only formally trained, but I am certified as a Project Management Professional.

Since 2004, I have trained thousands in the art and science of project management with great success in turning projects within companies around simply by instituting a few simple processes.

My Evolutionary Process – Part 2

Similarly, I never realized formal industry standards existed for day-to-day operations of IT systems until I ran into the ITIL framework. I simply thought fixing fires and trying to predict future flare-ups was the norm. (Sadly, it is, but that can change with proper methodologies.) I am certified in ITIL version 2 and ITIL version 3 fundamentals.

In speaking with Art about UC implementation, I realized a broader audience would benefit from our discussion. Because of the nature of UC, its fluidity, variance of definition by company and user-base, and rapid advancements, project management and ITIL concepts and processes are key to successful deployment and upkeep of the system.

The Changing PMO

The PMO or Project Management Office is the focal point for project management governance and oversight. It establishes the guidelines and standards to be followed. Typically the PMO focus is on projects only. They have not been concerned with day-to-day operations.

For many companies, the PMO originated from the need to manage IT projects more successfully. Industry studies report close to 75% of IT projects fail. The PMO was implemented to increase the success rate. For those companies who have gone the certification route through the Project Management Institute (www.pmi.org) and trained their project managers, studies report a 70% success rate instead.

The success of the PMO governance and guidance of projects has lead many to believe that daily operations would benefit from similar oversight. As a result, the PMO has to morph into an organization supporting two industry standards. Traditional project management methodology does not support operations.

Additionally, the experience set of the two domains are quite different. For example, projects are a specific scope of work defined by begin and end dates, and the resulting product or service transitions into operations.

Operations, however, is ongoing, so they have no end dates but must smoothly transition new functionality and supporting infrastructure without any impact to the business.

What’s To Come

Here is a bullet list of topics to be covered in this series of articles:

•An overview of PMO functionality,
•Determining the need for UC (It’s not just IT management!),
•Proper project management methodologies,
•ITIL practices as they pertain to UC – both version 2 and version 3,
•Comparison of Project Management and ITIL methodologies,
•UC planning and implementation strategies,
•UC lifecycle – evolutionary definition, evaluation, implementation and support of business needs as experience dictates and business drivers change (mobility, device upgrades, new technology, regulations and legislations compliance, competitive needs, social impacts, etc.),
•Ongoing enhancements and support of the UC infrastructure,
•And more.

I will reference practical experience from my past, but I would like to showcase others’ experiences also. Tell me how you handle your daily operations, any experience you’ve had with ITIL or project management practices, sticky points you’d like an opinion on, etc. You can reach me at [email protected] or www.ameagle.com.

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